I have two chow chows. One is almost 3 years old and is the puppy of my other chow. Both chows are very well socialized and love people. I live on a golf course and people stop and talk to my dogs all of the time. I also have a business at my home where I constantly have different people coming and going and my chows could care less. I was 99.9 % sure my chows would never attack someone because they are so friendly, outgoing and non territorial. The puppy (Thunder) and mother rough house all of the time and the mom "trains" him when he gets out of control. A few weeks ago I was outside brushing Thunder and he tried to bite me in the face becuase he wanted me to let him go. That was surprising to me becuase his mother NEVER would have done that. I noticed that his behavior in this instance was exactly the way he behaves with his mother. Today we had kids outside eating pizza, the dogs were locked up at the time. Later the dogs were let out and we forgot the pizza box was on the patio. Thunder is notorious for stealing things (he stole an employees cup of hot chocolate once) so not surprising Thunder grabbed the whole box of pizza and ran away with it. My 6 year old son saw this and went to take the pizza away from Thunder. Thunder started barking and trying to nip at him like he does to his mother when she takes things away from him. The problem is his nipping became actual biting. He bit my son on his arm, his back, his butt and his head. He did not grab on and tear back and forth side ways like chows sometimes do, but I am really concerned. Some golfers saw the attack and told me I needed to put my dog down. I know chows have a reputaion for turning on people and being vicious but I didn't see this coming at all! So the question is do I need to put him down? I blame myself for leaving the pizza out and wonder if it is to late to try and train him differently. On the other hand I worry that it would be completly irresponsible for me to keep him and even try and train him because I always have children around and it is a big chance to take.He is the cutest thing and has always been very friendly and loving. We would all be devestated to put him to sleep, but I am afraid I need to. Help, what should I do???

On the other hand I worry that it would be completly irresponsible for me to keep him and even try and train him because I always have children around and it is a big chance to take.

What is truly irresponsible, is you assuming that Mother dog should be training Baby dog how to properly interact with humans and how to properly interact with living amongst humans instead of yourself. ( Unless this entire conversation is some sort of joke - and I really wonder if it is )

What is even more irresponsible of you is to even suggest that now that you have a problem, the solution is to possibly get RID of the problem by getting rid of the dog. You may not have come out and said it, but the subliminal suggestion is there irregardless.

Maybe the "Responsible You", could spend time educating your dog, on how to be a good dog. You can start by teaching it to have a sense of propriety so it doesn't feel carte blanche to take food off of tables, and away from people - you can teach it instead of running away from you, to recall when you call it - just t here would be good starting points.

Chows don't turn on people. Chows who have to endure human inappropriate human intervention and who are not properly socialized tend to retaliate towards people.

If this truly is a legitimate conversation, get yourself and your dogs signed up in dog school so that YOU can learn what is acceptable from a dog and what is not, and for whatever is not acceptable, you will learn how to effectively diffuse and deal with the problem to produce results. It's very sad when people get hurt because of irresponsible dog ownership and the dog's well being is put in jeopardy as well.

I agree with everything Merlin said. You're the adult in the situation and it is your responsibility to keep both your children and animals safe and protected and that requires training and education for both.

My 6 year old son saw this and went to take the pizza away from Thunder. Thunder started barking and trying to nip at him like he does to his mother when she takes things away from him. The problem is his nipping became actual biting. He bit my son on his arm, his back, his butt and his head. He did not grab on and tear back and forth side ways like chows sometimes do, but I am really concerned. Some golfers saw the attack and told me I needed to put my dog down.

Where were you? You say that some of the golfers witnessed it, but don't mention witnessing it yourself. If you weren't there I would add one more thing to Merlin's list of irresponsibility, it is completely irresponsible to leave small children and dogs (any dog, not just chows) unsupervised. You also said that he bit your son on his arm, back and rear end, how severe were the bites? I don't know where you are but where I live (Canada), if your child had required medical attention, most likely both child services and the animal protection agencies would be involved and Thunder would probably be at the shelter in quarantine right now.

I appreciate both of your responses but don't understand why you have to be so rude when I am simply trying to determine if it is safe to continue to have my chow around kids. My dog is not a wild out of control dog and when I said his mother trained him I was simply referring her correcting him when he bites her to hard in play. He does not ever nip at us or bite us during play or any other situation for that matter. My dog is normally very well behaved. We have trained him! He does not jump up on people, bark at them, nip at them ect.. He obeys us when we give him instructions. The only behavior issue has been the few times he has grabbed something and run away with it. It has only happened like 3 times in 3 years so I really didn't think it was that big of deal especially because it seemed playful. We have never had problems with him being possessive of things or agressive before except for a few weeks ago when he tried to bite me while grooming him. And you ask where was I? I was doing yard work in the front yard and my kids were in the back yard. My kids and every kid in the neighborhood are around my dogs all of the time because my dogs are very friendly and outgoing and love people. like I said before I NEVER thought this would be a problem because there has never been any behavior before that would make me think I should be concerned. Both my dogs love people. They are both totally okay with anyone coming up to them at anytime and petting them ect. I had never seen ANY behavior that would indicate that my dog would attack someone. So while I am definately willing to try and do training in this area I am afraid that it will always be his nature and maybe next time we won't be so lucky. I am simply looking for someone who has delt with this before and want to know their honest opinion. Should I trust that he can be trained better and this issue can be resolved or do I always need to worry about him turning on someone even with good training?

Asking for an opinion here on whether or not the dog should be put down based on the incident is a bit far fetched...

Even if your description of the animal are accurate, and i say that because perception of your dog and even children can be jaded, its a tough call with the info provided.

Basically, your 6 year old took food out of the dogs mouth. What is the feeding regimen in your house? In my home, we feed the dogs 1/2 ration and then reach in to take the bowl, and then refill it with the remaining portion. We have taught them that their food is provided by us, controlled by us, and we will not let them do without. This process is repeated by every member of the household, not just me. We do the same with chew treats and toys. We have shown them that we control what they can and can't have, and that there is no negative consequence to allowing us to take things from them. It also gets the children involved with some responsibility for caring for their pets.

"Stealing" food, would never be tolerated. Every bit of food or treat is given based on a reward. The dog is given a command prior to any food or treat being delivered. Dogs need to sit, lay down, or speak (choose any basic dog behavior) before a bowl is placed down. Nothing is free. They wont even accept a treat now unless they are asked to do something ahead of time. I can place a slice of cheese on a dog face height table and they will ignore it until they are given a command and offered it.

You will also need to work with your child. Chasing any dog down and then pulling food from it's mouth is never a good idea regardless of the breed or the extent of behavioral training. A six year old is going to have a difficult time asserting itself over any dog. The chow will see a six year old as a playmate at best, and when it comes to resources, its a competitor.

I think you have a lot of work to do. Consider your home environment and how the dog is trained. "MoM" cant train the dog on how to interact with people. She can only teach the dog instinct. The two are not necessarily compatible. You need to train both dogs on what is acceptable to you.

Nsponbe,I am sorry that the previous responses were so rude. I read these posts earlier and thought wow why so mean?Negativity and blaming accomplishes nothing. We try to help each other on this web site. There is great information on this web site with regards to all sorts of information and specific problems. Please do a search. Hopefully some other members who have dealt with this specific issue will chime in with some advice.